Erin Sidney (aka Syd), Patrick Thomas and Lisa Piccirillo are each experienced touring and recording artists with self-released albums and a thick portfolio of singer/songwriter accolades. Each has performed showcases at prestigious music festivals, opened for national acts, maintained rigorous touring schedules and received plenty of quotable love from the press. In the Fall of 2010 they came together in a lakeside cabin to form Hotels & Highways and record what would become “Lost River”, a folk-tinged meditation on the deeper meaning of living and a love letter to the spirit of collaboration.
At a crucial moment of quiet intensity, the members of Hotels & Highways heard the wind rustling the trees in their headphones. For any other project it would have been an unwelcome signal to cut the take short and try again when there was golden silence. Instead, the three newly-committed band members smiled at their good fortune and carried on playing, the wind and trees now indelible partners in the song's performance.
It was September 2010 and Erin “Syd” Sidney, Lisa Piccirillo and Patrick Thomas were getting to be well-versed in letting their temporary home in the woods be a part of the creative process. They'd come to a lakeside cabin in New York to fulfill a mutual, career-long dream of living together while recording an album. A week-long tour of the Northeast had been booked immediately following the 10-day writing and recording retreat. The material was largely unwritten. The sound had not been clearly defined. But with each day's new songs and each night's recording sessions, what began as a joyful experiment in creativity and trust evolved quickly into an emerging full-length album and a well-received tour. Hotels & Highways, originally a nom de plume for songs a group of friends wrote together, had quietly and gracefully transformed into a band.
With a stream of updates and videos coming from the cabin, friends and fans watched the project gather momentum and became an integral part of the experience. Real-time support for the group evolved into validation that only a proper release would do this music justice. Through the use of fan-funding website Kickstarter, the band raised over $13,000 (far surpassing their goal of $10,000) to finance the remaining production on their album and a corresponding national tour. With this massive vote of confidence from their fan base, Hotels & Highways’ cabin-grown debut, “Lost River,” hits digital stands on March 8, 2011.
Syd, Patrick, and Lisa are each experienced touring and recording artists with self-released albums and a thick portfolio of singer/songwriter accolades. Each has performed showcases at prestigious music festivals, opened for national acts, maintained rigorous touring schedules and received plenty of quotable love from the press.
Though comprised of accomplished members, Hotels & Highways is just beginning its journey. Leaving behind the sounds of that lake in New York, the band will share the spirit that defines them and live up to their name with a 6-week tour of the US, including dates at Cafe 939 in Boston, Rockwood Music Hall’s new Stage 2 in New York City, Molly Malone’s in Los Angeles and 20 other major cities in the Spring of 2011.
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